Early heart disease deaths hit a 10-year high after pandemic

EIGHTY people in every 100,000 in England died from cardiac and circulatory diseases before the age of 75 in 2022, researchers have found – more than in any year since 2011, when the figure was 83 per 100,000.

It was the third successive year the death rate had risen. Experts at the British Heart Foundation (BHF) who crunched the numbers said it was the first time since 2020 “there [had] been a clear reversal in the trend for almost 60 years” following a “significant slowdown” in improvements between 2012 and 2019.

In 2022, more than 39,000 people under 75 died from cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks, strokes and coronary heart disease – 107 people every day, or almost five per hour.

It was the most premature deaths from heart disease recorded since 2008, when almost 40,000 people died. The figure has risen every year since a low of 33,700 in 2014. When adjusted to account for the UK’S burgeoning and ageing population, the 73 deaths per 100,000 of 2019 was the lowest rate.

Britain is “in the grip of the worst heart-care crisis in living memory,” according to Dr Sonya Babu-narayan, associate medical director at the BHF and a consultant cardiologist.

“Every part of the system providing heart care is damaged, from prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery to crucial research that could give us faster and better treatments,” she said.

“This is happening when more people are getting sicker and need the NHS more than ever. I find it tragic we’ve lost hard-won progress to reduce early death from cardiovascular disease.”

While the rate of deaths fell by 11 per cent between 2012 and 2019, this was less than the 33 per cent it was reduced by in the seven years prior and it has risen almost 13 per cent since the pandemic, undoing a decade of progress.

Pressure on the NHS and its services and the impact of the pandemic are partly to blame, the charity said, but the Government had also failed to act on more than a decade of “warning signs”.

BHF said millions of people are living with undiagnosed conditions, such as high blood pressure, raised cholesterol and type 2 diabetes that are putting them at risk and pointed to lack of action to tackle “stubbornly high obesity rates”. Some two thirds of adults in England are considered overweight or obese. “This is storing up huge problems for the future”, the charity said.

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, BHF‘S chief executive, said 50 years of progress had been “followed by a lost decade of progress in which far too many people lost loved ones. We can stop this heartbreak, but only if politicians address the preventable causes of heart disease; cut long waiting lists for people who need heart and stroke care; and help power scientific breakthroughs to unlock revolutionary new treatments and cures.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “This government has taken significant action to reduce cardiovascular disease and its causes, including increasing access to testing and encouraging reduced salt and sugar intake, but we know there is more to do.”